And why not? Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and Ray Bradbury long ago explained how the system would work once those in authority got their act together and the technology to snoop on us all.

Needless to say, there are many other democracy-infatuated groups like ours that suffer similar spying and harassment. It makes little difference who’s in power at the moment. Power is power, and those who hold it want to keep it.

Now it turns out that we dissenters needn’t have been quite so proud of all that snooping. As Edward Snowden — America’s latest whistleblowing superhero — has just divulged, the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been spying on everybody, not just us.

And we Veterans For Peace thought we were special! But it turns out that the authorities have been logging your calls as well. And scanning your email for keywords. And recording your personal movements.

None of us knew about it until Snowden blew a whistle.

Previously, you might have naively expected that your privacy was somehow protected by the Fourth Amendment. You know: freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures and all that. Nice try.

The NSA gave some thought to the Bill of Rights. Then the agency decided that reevaluating its spy program wasn’t really necessary. It’s much easier to reevaluate the Fourth Amendment instead.

The government essentially did that in 1978, when it created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This sneaky law created a special secret court to approve otherwise illegal spying on citizens when national security was at stake.

It sounds like a kangaroo court. Last year, there were 1,789 requests for permission to spy — all were granted. In 2011, there were 1,676 requests, and guess what? All of those were granted too.

Subsequent additions to the law have further broadened the government’s reach. Unfortunately, all those covered activities are still secret.

Thus, it’s all but impossible to challenge any of them because we aren’t entitled to the necessary information to find out which things the government’s doing that might be objectionable. Huh? Anyway that’s pretty much what the Supreme Court confirmed back in February.

Meanwhile, the authorities are drilling more peepholes into our private lives.

Nationwide, cameras and recording devices are popping up in public places to capture your comments and to place your whereabouts on record for posterity. Those cameras at intersections meant to snitch if you run a red light have more than one purpose, you know. They record your location forever, as does your car’s GPS. And most cell phones. You want privacy? Maybe you should move to Burkina Faso.

All this surveillance is naturally aimed at protecting us from terrorists. Really?

The FBI has, as expected, trotted out a dozen cases where a holocaust would surely have befallen the land had our sleuths not been illegally spying on us all. Maybe so, but there’s no way to fact-check such claims.

We need to get rid of FISA,why on earth should we be having secret courts and we can now see only because of Snowden, who I hope will not pay the price he thinks he is going to pay but felt it was necessary for this country. A real hero in most of Americans opinion. This secret court has been conducted in illegal activity against all of the American people. Heads need to go directly to jail for this right their with the IRS who targeted political groups and did not fund them which we know people at the top right up to Obama because he had the most to gain and we know that Obama had over 100 meeting with the IRS during this period.